Jeanette Kalchik (California)

2021 Highs

Cross stitch
Stitched by Jeanette Kalchik / Adapted from pattern by KristisCornerNeedle

“When cataloging, the focus is often on the individual book, but the metadata created for the individual records comes together as a whole in the library catalog. Each book in this piece represents the highs for Fremont, California and is part of the bookshelf catalog for the year. The piece was submitted unfinished in early December so the December books could not be made available as more than a brief outline. This feels very representative of the fact that cataloging is a continual work that never is truly done.”

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Jeanette Kalchik is the electronic resources metadata librarian at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

The cross stitch depicts a bookshelf with twelve shelves that are full of books. Each shelf represents a month in the year, and each book represents one day of that month. The top month is January, the second shelf is February, and so forth down the bookshelf. The books on each shelf are stitched in a color to represent the high temperature for a given day of the month–cool tones for cooler temperatures and warm tones for hotter temperatures. The call number at the top of the bookshelf  classifies this work under Physics — Meteorology. Climatology — Climatology and weather — Geographic divisions — United States — California — Fremont.